Darryl 'Flea' Virostko - back to Mavericks - SFGate Darryl 'Flea' Virostko - back to Mavericks SUNDAY PROFILE: Darryl 'Flea' Virostko Rehab rescued renowned surfer - now he throws others a lifeline By Demian Bulwa , San Francisco Chronicle Published 4:00 am, Sunday, November 8, 2009 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1of/5 Close Image 1 of 5 Legendary surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko rides the waves off Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The three-time Mavericks champion will compete in this year's world class surfing event. less Legendary surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko rides the waves off Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The three-time Mavericks champion will compete in this year's world class surfing ...

more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 2 of 5 Legendary surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko talks openly about his recovery from a meth addiction in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The three-time Mavericks champion will compete in this year's world class surfing event. less Legendary surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko talks openly about his recovery from a meth addiction in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The three-time Mavericks champion will compete in this year's ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 3 of 5 Darryl "Flea" Virostko (right), a champion surfer and recovering meth addict, takes two clients he's counseling for an afternoon of surfing off Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. Darryl "Flea" Virostko (right), a champion surfer and recovering meth addict, takes two clients he's counseling for an afternoon of surfing off Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct.

28, 2009. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 4 of 5 Surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko (left) visits Jack O'Neill at the legendary wetsuit maker's home in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. Surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko (left) visits Jack O'Neill at the legendary wetsuit maker's home in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 5 of 5 Legendary surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko rides the waves off Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The three-time Mavericks champion will compete in this year's world class surfing event. less Legendary surfer Darryl "Flea" Virostko rides the waves off Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The three-time Mavericks champion will compete in this year's world class surfing ...

more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Darryl 'Flea' Virostko - back to Mavericks 1 / 5 Back to Gallery Nearly dying is a specialty of Darryl "Flea" Virostko. The surfer, who won the first three monster-wave contests at Mavericks north of Half Moon Bay, almost drowned there once when the leash that attaches his ankle to the board clung to an underwater rock. So epic was a plunge down a 50-foot wall of water at Hawaii's Waimea Bay in 2004 that Surfer magazine dubbed it the "Wipeout of the Decade." But Virostko was never closer to death than when he decided to get sober last year, several days after terrified relatives and fellow surfers staged an intervention. Closing out a final bender, he smoked a pipe of crystal meth, then chugged a half-gallon of vodka as he drove from Santa Cruz to a Pacific Grove rehab center. "I didn't care about my life at all," Virostko said recently, talking about his rise to stardom and near-fatal descent.

"I wasn't being Flea." Being Flea means pushing the limits of mortality on freakishly large waves, not dry land. Now, he said, it means celebrating 14 months of sobriety, teaching addicts to surf in his FleaHab program, and training to become a drug and alcohol counselor. "If I can do it, anyone can do it," the 37-year-old said of quitting drugs. "Because I went to the edge of the earth." Virostko's comeback is an undercurrent of this season's Mavericks Surf Contest, an event that once seemed designed for his audacity. The five-month contest window opened Nov. 1, meaning Mavericks can be held the next time giant swells roll in. If Virostko wins, he'll own four of seven titles. He could also use the $50,000 check. He recently had to sell his house to pay off $150,000 in back taxes and stay out of bankruptcy. 'You can't go any lower' Mavericks made Flea's name. But the first time he paddled into it in the early 1990s, he said, he was on acid.

In later years, he often visited on meth. At this year's contest, he will be surrounded by surfers who hope he can channel his intensity into his recovery. "I've never seen anyone who was in that deep turn it around," said Joey Thomas , 61, a Santa Cruz surfer and friend. "You can't go any lower." "Going from one extreme to the next - that's how he has negotiated his life," said Virostko's 39-year-old brother, Troy. "Now it's opening a new door." Virostko said drugs never helped his performance - just the opposite, he said - and had nothing to do with his famous fearlessness. That came naturally. West-side roots He grew up relatively poor, in a neighborhood on Santa Cruz's west side known as "the Circles" because of the layout of the streets. "West side, best side," he said, flashing a "WS" tattoo. His mother was a nurse and Jazzercise instructor, his father a high school art teacher who taught him to surf at age 4 at Cowell's, a spot just north of the Boardwalk where many a child has caught his first wave. He always felt at home in the water.

Richard Schmidt recalled an 8- or 9-year-old Virostko knocking him off a wave at another spot known as Rivermouth. Schmidt, a big-wave pioneer who runs a surf school in town, was 12 years older. "No apology or nothing," said Schmidt, who is now a friend. Virostko was always a bad boy, said childhood friend Joshua Pomer . In junior high, when a bigger kid bear-hugged Flea - who is now 5-foot-10 but got his nickname because he was tiny until a late-arriving puberty - Virostko hit him in the face with a juice bottle. "The guy will never back down to anyone," said Pomer, 36, who is finishing a documentary called "The Westsiders" on the life of Virostko and his friends. "He's been in a lot of fistfights and he's lost a lot of them, but he's won a lot of them as well. It's that same bravado he took to Mavericks." Virostko won the inaugural big-wave contest in February 1999.

He celebrated by renting a room at Santa Cruz's Dream Inn on a bluff just north of the Boardwalk, where he and his friends dropped acid and tossed furniture onto the beach. After he beat world champion Kelly Slater the next year, Virostko was surfing royalty. He won his most recent Mavericks title in 2004. Caught up in whirlwind He made as much as $12,000 a month from sponsors and bought his house. Generous with his plunder, he took a friend on a surfing trip to South Africa and lent another $10,000 to start a flooring company. He cruised Santa Cruz in a blue 1965 ragtop Impala. "I never had money growing up, so when I got my hands on some, I said, 'Let's do this,' " Virostko said. His sponsors sold him as a stereotype - a rock star - and it was no fiction. "He would run into people who said, 'Hey, that's Flea, I want to party with that dude,' " Schmidt said. "It's a whirlwind he got caught up in.

He was perceived a certain way - and he was a certain way." Flea's fall Thomas said he had seen it before with Santa Cruz surfers. The lifestyle lends itself to drinking and drugs, which can tip toward addiction. And some surfers struggle with an inevitable crash, when they are surpassed by younger athletes and have little else to fall back on. "It's hard for them to be one of the best, and get paid for it, and then live in the real world," Thomas said. Virostko said his downward spiral accelerated in March 2007 after the cancer death of an uncle and kindred spirit, Doug Virostko. Then, the next February, Virostko passed out while high and climbing a cliff a few miles up the coast in Davenport. When he landed, the compound fracture in his left forearm cut through his skin, and a helicopter had to rescue him. Sidelined from surfing, he devoured two quarts of vodka and as many as 20 meth doses a day. He fell asleep at 5 a.m., if at all. The house he bought became a drug den and was littered with driftwood that the meth-addled Virostko intended to carve into art.

Once, when a crew member from Pomer's documentary showed up, the star of the film decked him. At the last Mavericks contest, in January 2008, Virostko showed up late after staying up all night partying and doing meth, then took a couple of brutal falls. He failed to advance out of his preliminary heat. In those days, Pomer said, "I'd roll over to his house and it would be ground zero. There were skulls on the walls and it smelled like burnt clutch. The house looked like a set for a vampire movie." The intervention In August 2008, Virostko's father, Steve, drove him to the classroom where he taught at Santa Cruz High School . His son walked in to find a dozen people - relatives and surf elders, including Thomas and Schmidt - with an intervention specialist. Flea was "pissed," he said, but stayed. His aunt, Nancy Virostko , brought up his uncle's death and told him through sobs, "I don't want to watch somebody else I love die." He then embarked on a binge, but it was the last one. Something had crept through the fog.

After his month in rehab, Virostko moved north to quiet Bonny Doon, seeking a break from the west side. A few months later, he began talking to Jack O'Neill , the founder of the O'Neill surf gear company, about a second career. O'Neill connected Virostko to Janet Norton , the program manager at Providence Recovery Center in Santa Cruz, and in September they launched FleaHab. Addicts, while living at the rehab center, pay to go out surfing with Virostko, who works 20 hours a week and is being trained by Norton. He also makes money as a pro surfer - he's back in the lineup for Quiksilver's Eddie Aikau contest at Waimea Bay - and has regained sponsorship deals with a wetsuit company and a board maker. "I think he can do a lot of good," said O'Neill, who helped pay for Virostko's rehab. "A guy who hasn't been there - it doesn't make the same impression." "I wanted to go to a place (for treatment) like I'm trying to make for other people," Virostko said.

"I can use whatever - my fame or my name - to help people do something important." Rehab surfing On a recent morning, he met two recovering addicts near O'Neill's home, and they paddled into surf spots - First Peak, Second Peak, Sewer Peak - that feature mere ripples compared to Mavericks. One, a 21-year-old from New York, said he had agreed to come west after a personal call from Virostko. The other, a 45-year-old attorney from Aptos, said after the session, "When I'm out there, it's really the only time I'm not thinking about the struggle." Virostko said his new job helps keep him sober, too. He said he had always been high-strung but is more relaxed now - less likely to bang on his steering wheel when stuck behind a slow driver on the road. He surfs twice a day. It helps him forget his troubles on land and tires him, helping him sleep. When he was asked to find a higher power during his rehab, he thought of big waves. "I just referred back to every time I got worked over at Mavericks," he said.

"I would look up at this whitewash and pray to the ocean, and it worked every time. The ocean is bigger than me." Latest from the SFGATE homepage: Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page. Mavericks Legend Darryl "Flea" Virostko Opens FleaHab, Off The Lip Radio - YouTube Mavericks Legend Darryl "Flea" Virostko Opens FleaHab, Off The Lip Radio Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Streamed live on Feb 18, 2014 3X Mavericks Champion, Darryl "Flea" Virostko is this week's legendary guest on Off The Lip Radio Show, live streaming on TheSurfChannel.com!

Call in to ask questions from 7-8 PM PST, Tuesday nights: 1-831-479-1080 Big wave surfing legend, Darryl "Flea" Virostko, is the only surfer to ever win the Mavericks competition three times. His local knowledge makes Flea one of the most respected athletes in the lineup at the world's most dangerous break. Virostko was a four-time competitor and 12-time invitee to the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. In 2000, he beat current 11-time World Champion surfer Kelly Slater in all three heats of the Quiksilver Men Who Ride Mountains event at Maverick's, including the final. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, "Godfather"-like figure Vince Collier, who enforced the heavy NorCal localism, nicknamed Virostko as "Flea" when he spotted the barely 4 ft teenage surfer charging down the face of a Middle Peak set wave at Steamer Lane. Born in Santa Cruz, California, Virostko channeled aggression from a troubled childhood into his surfing on the Westside.

Gang violence became heavy when local drug problems found its way into the surf lineup. Virostko fell victim to the party scene becoming addicted to meth, changing his focus and goals as the "Westside" vs. "Eastside" localism escalated. Darryl was at the top of his profession when the celebrity lifestyle that accompanied his surfing success brought with it alcohol and methamphetamine addiction. A near fatal fall from a cliff almost killed him -- that was when he decided to get help. Since his retirement from competitive surfing, Virostko has changed his life completely opening a rehabilitation center in Santa Cruz for others struggling with drug additions. He has shifted his focus towards his family, freesurfing and serving the community. He opened FleaHab, a rehab center with a mission to provide a sober living environment, created to integrate exercise and a healthy lifestyle into the recovery process for those afflicted with drug and alcohol addiction. For more information on FleaHab, visit: Off the Lip Radio Show features legendary surfers and skateboarders in their Santa Cruz, California studio. You can listen in on 1080AM radio in the Bay Area every Tuesday evening starting from 7PM PST.

Now, you can watch the YouTube Live stream from inside the studio right here on TheSurfChannel.com! ___________________________________ The Surf Channel will be an original, free, ad supported television network delivered on cable, satellite and IPTV services, web and wireless. The Video On Demand television network will be found on cable, satellite, telco and digital. Distribution partners include: Comcast, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Filmon.com. For industry news around the clock and to find out about the upcoming television launch, check out: Titans of Mavericks › History Jeff Clark And so it went for many years, and the elusive wave would break with ferocity in the winter, and only on certain swells, making it more of a phantom only known to locals who studied the sea. In 1975, a 17-year-old high school student named Jeff Clark watched the wave carefully, learned its finicky ways, and studied it so carefully that what he saw was more than a hazard, but a playground. Clark tried to convince his friends to paddle out with him, with no success.

In the winter of 1975 on a big and clean northwest swell, Clark decided to surf it, alone, riding the lefts at first as a natural goofy foot. Soon, as he grew to understand the wave, he learned to surf switch foot and began riding the rights. He had Maverick’s as his own playground for 15 years. It wasn’t until 1990 until he could convince anyone to surf with him, although a few brave souls would actually paddle out there to watch from the channel. However, on January 22, 1990, Clark led Santa Cruz surfers David Schmidt and Tom Powers into a monster swell and the rides of their lives. Almost instantly, the word got out that California had a big wave that rivaled Waimea, but was colder and gnarlier than anything anyone had seen before. Soon, surfers from all over started showing up, along with photographers, helicopters and the crowds to watch. Many surfers have answered the call of Maverick’s over the years, including legends Jay Moriarty, who surfed Mavericks for the first time at age 16, and Hawaiian big-wave surfer, Mark Foo.

In one of the most epic swells in Mavericks’ history – December 1994 – Foo, along with Hawaiian surfers Ken Bradshaw and Brock Little, paddled into the cold waters of the Pacific. After taking off late into an 18-foot wave, Foo wiped out, disappearing into the froth. It was the last time anyone would see him alive. The tragic loss of a fellow surfer led to the creation of the Maverick’s Water Patrol to provide rescue and support on the biggest days at Maverick’s. But in the PWC-free winter season of 2010-11, surfer Jacob Trette nearly lost his life after getting caught inside the massive waves and being rescued by a local kayaker. Two months later, Hawaiian big wave surfer Sion Milosky surfed giant swell that hit Maverick’s, dredging off the main bowl in a low tide, creating massive slabs of water sucking out from the bottom. Milosky surfed for two days, but ultimately lost his life surfing. These tragedies symbolize the extraordinary danger posed by the wave, as well as the fearless character and strength of those who challenge it.

In 1999, the first competition was held at Maverick’s. Santa Cruz surfer Darryl “Flea” Virostko won that first event that truly put Mavericks on the map as an international phenomenon. Virostko went on to win again in 2000 and 2004, making him the only three-time TITANS OF MAVERICKS Champion. In 2005, the prize went to Santa Cruz surfer Anthony Tashnick , followed by the winning performance of South African big wave charger Grant “Twiggy” Baker in 2006. The 2008 contest found Greg Long of San Clemente as the winner. And the 2010 contest, regarded as the biggest paddle-in contest ever held in the world, was won by South Africa’s Chris Bertish . Clearly, the big wave world has found its stage at Maverick’s. In 2013 long time Maverick’s icon and influencer Peter Mel won. In 2014 Grant “Twiggy” Baker won again, crowning him a two time winner.

As surf writer Marcus Sanders wrote, Maverick’s has taken the brunt of human ambition, ego and conflict over the past 10 years, but has brushed all of it aside. Clark’s 1991 prediction still stands and always will: “I’ve seen a lot of people paddle out there, but only a few really ride it. I don’t care if word gets out. Maverick’s will always take care of itself.” Contest Finishes A Searching And Fearless Moral Inventory | SURFER Magazine A Searching And Fearless Moral Inventory July 22, 2010 By Kimball Taylor Thirty-seven-year-old big-wave champion Darryl “Flea” Virostko and I stood on a cliff above the grey North Pacific. The wind howled. The surf spot we’d come to check folded in upon itself far below us. Flea unburied his golf bag from the bed of his battered Toyota Tundra. Just couple of years old, it belched white smoke from the exhaust pipe, bled steering fluid, and ran unevenly on seven of its eight cylinders. The right-hand door and mirror were mangled from a night a few months past when Flea was driving wasted and hit a tree.

A number of nights unfolded like this, Flea admitted, that when driving debilitated, hazards jumped out at him. The words “Tow Fag” had been etched in acid on the windshield by Morro Bay locals (unaware they slandered the current poster boy for the Eddie, the world’s most prestigious paddle-in contest). The truck’s interior brimmed with remnants of his former three-bedroom. No longer able to make mortgage payments on the place just a few blocks from Steamer Lane, Flea was forced to sell. Fortunately, he’d often doubled his mortgage payments when the money was good, and even though he’d lost most of the home’s value by selling during a recession and paying delinquent taxes, he’d still pocket a fraction his principal. Waiting on that check to arrive, however, was tough. Flea, his girlfriend, and their two dogs had spent some time living out of the truck. They’d recently found a cabin in the hills above Santa Cruz. Still, they might be hiking in and out of there. Letters tossed on the floorboard of the Tundra threatened repossession. We traded driving balls into the wind, attempting to discern the white of the balls from the white caps on the sea.

Obviously, he’d known that the surf would be crap, yet activities were the order of the day—hiking in the woods, building a dam in a creek bed, gathering rocks and shells from the beach—anything to keep the mind occupied. There was surfing, too, but these days it lasted such a short span, when his former pursuit could stretch through the night and day. Importantly, however, this was a mission: Flea wanted to get it out, all of it. Rambling up-coast from Santa Cruz, we worked through the bending winter greenery in an effort to assemble his story. He’d been high for the last big chunk of it, so precise chronology became fuzzy. The obvious events were hard to look at, but unavoidable. “My contracts were up. The recession hit. And I was, basically…a drug addict,” Flea said. “My contracts were up. The recession hit. And I was, basically…a drug addict.” Three-time consecutive winner of the Mavericks big-wave event, Flea was leaning toward the four-month sobriety mark via a 12-step program. And he was coming clean in dramatic fashion. Hovering somewhere between steps No.

4 (“a searching and fearless moral inventory”) and No. 5 (admitting “the exact nature of our wrongs”) Flea possessed strength enough to bounce between pre-occupations with a reclaimed buoyancy. But there were the darker moments, and the just plain, being-Flea moments—like rolling down the windows to sound “Eastside fags” and getting in the face of a Steamer Lane surfer who’d been dropped in on by a buddy and assumed to be raising arms in protest. Despite the public postures that still clung to him, the candor with which he now framed his life was courageous to the point of endearing. For the past year he’d been drinking a half-gallon of vodka a day. The first thing he’d do in the morning, if he’d slept at all, was grab a Gatorade, pour half of it out, and top it off with vodka. He called this his “little sipper,” and it accompanied his surf checks. This massive consumption was made possible by the “sparks”: smoking crystal methamphetamine, maybe four or five times a day, maybe more.

By dawn on the morning of the ’07-’08 Mavericks event, Flea hadn’t slept a wink, was wide awake in fact, but made sure to pick up a coffee to blend in with his health-conscious competitors. Paddling out high was not new, nor did it boost his game. He fell out in the first round. Today, under the influence of coming clean, Flea finds it easier to say that he was a simple alcoholic, than to admit the rest. During the paddle-out for this year’s Mavericks opening ceremony, when asked to say something in celebration of the event by Jeff Clark, Flea said, “My name is Flea, and I’m an alcoholic.” The battle with methamphetamine that he and an entire group of Santa Cruz surfers’ have fought most often comes out in hushed tones. It’s been the gorilla in the room for most of the past decade. “It got dark up here. Dark, dark, dark . . . It got grim,” said former WCT competitor Adam Replogle, “The partying started in high school and continued on, until that substance hit.” That January afternoon, Flea and I had been to another white rock cliff just down the coast.

Its nickname is “90 Degrees” because the track descending to a scenic beach is sheer for more than 100 vertical feet. At the bottom of the goat trail is a mangle of steel left from a pier that serviced the nearby cement factory. The pier is only pilings in the ocean now. Last year, Flea had been partying on the beach with other friends who orbited within methamphetamine’s gravity. The small alcove lies far enough from Santa Cruz, and obscure enough in geography, to prevent casual police intervention; it remained a kind of haven for partiers and addicts. In the early evening, Flea began to ascend the cliff trail with his dog. Two-thirds of the way up, a friend on top yelled down at him to fetch something or other. As Flea’s gaze rose upward, he became dizzy, and he blacked out. Witnesses say that his body completed a full backflip before striking dirt and stone. He eventually found himself landed on the metal leftover from the pier—60 feet below. Flea’s arm was badly broken and his face cut up, blood ran in dark ribbons. Once he came to, he wanted to scale the cliff again.

Luckily, friends stopped him and called for a helicopter MedEvac. Flea recuperated in a nearby hospital for four days. “I was dead…I mean, I should have been,” he said. Article Navigation Three-time Mavericks champion retires from big-wave surfing – The Mercury News January 8, 2012 at 2:15 am | UPDATED: August 13, 2016 at 11:35 am SANTA CRUZ — Darryl Virostko knows the perfect thrill of air dropping down the face of a 30-foot wave from deep in the bowl at Mavericks. He also knows the feeling of being held down, trapped under the weight of the ocean, a drug called meth, and the expectations of the big wave surfing world. Over his 20-year professional surf career, the legendary Santa Cruz surfer has chased glory and tamed liquid mountains while doing battle with an under-the-surface monster called “addiction.” This year, in conjunction with the Mavericks Invitational Opening Ceremony held Friday, Virostko announced his retirement from professional big wave surfing. It’s been a wild ride. Virostko’s surf career is studded with glory moments.

He is a three-time Mavericks contest champion, claiming the title in back to back years in 1999 and 2000 and “Flea-peating” again in 2004. Looking back, Virostko, 40, has much to be proud of. “I made it doing something I loved,” he said. “My life was all about surfing and doing crazy stuff, getting crazy waves. To win Mavs once was like a dream come true, let alone three times.” During the inaugural 1999 Quiksilver Men Who Ride Mountains surf contest at Mavericks, the 5-foot, 9-inch, 150-pound surfer sported a leopard-pelt hairdo — a tribute to a friend who had cancer. In 2000, he beat current 11-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater in all three heats of the Quiksilver Men Who Ride Mountains event at Mavericks, including the final. “There’s no one in the surfing world that has done what he’s done,” said friend and fellow big wave surfer Peter Mel, a Santa Cruz native. “Three in a row is a feat that will never be matched.

It’s amazing what he’s accomplished.” Because the Mavericks contest was not run between Virostko’s 2000 and 2004 victories, he stands as a back to back to back champion. “[Flea] sets himself apart. In his heyday, he was the man to beat and I think he still would be today if he didn’t retire,” said Maverick’s pioneer Jeff Clark. Clark added that when Virostko started surfing Mavericks, “He learned early on to surf Mavericks well, and so when the first contest came around, he was ready.” Besides dominating at Mavericks, Virostko was a four-time competitor and 12-time invitee to the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. Virostko’s epic wipeout at the 2004 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational was featured on the cover of Surfing magazine in March 2005. The death-defying tumble from the 50-foot close-out earned Virostko Surfer magazine’s “Wipeout of the Decade” award.

Virostko was nominated for the Billabong XXL award for biggest wave of 2006. “There’s an inner being with Flea, and sometimes it just clicks at the most extreme places,” said fellow big wave surfer Shawn “Barney” Barron, also of Santa Cruz. “It’s kind of scary because you could play it safe and be on the shoulder, but Flea’s kind of the opposite. He’s always loved the thrill of getting a large wave.” Life at the top was about as precarious as one of Virostko’s wild rides at Mavericks. Eventually, the wave he was riding would give him the pounding of his life. Takeoff Virostko was born Dec. 25, 1971. He survived a troubled childhood by channelling his aggression into surfing on Santa Cruz’s Westside. The breaks along the Westside were a dangerous territory ruled by Vince Collier, a “Godfather”-like figure who enforced the heavy localism that kept the choice Santa Cruz breaks free of “valleys,” “trannies” and other unwanted interlopers.

Virostko earned his nickname, “Flea,” when Collier spotted the teenage surfer charging down the face of a Middle Peak set wave at Steamer Lane. Collier thought Virostko — who was barely above four feet tall at the time — looked like a flea clinging to the back of a big dog. “Steamer Lane is kind of a big wave in its own right,” said Mel, who credits the wave with honing Virostko’s early big wave skills. “Santa Cruz is such a unique place. The level of the surfers and of our mentors, Richard Schmidt and Vince Collier, we each took a little piece of what they did. Having mentors that were as good as those guys were on a global level, and also the crew we grew up with, gave us an advantage.” Virostko graduated from Santa Cruz High in 1991, already having graduated from Middle Peak bombs to Mavericks more dangerous waters the previous winter. The experienced lit a fire that would take 20 years to burn itself out. “I loved big waves,” said Virostko. “Every time Mav’s broke, I wanted to be up there.

We would paddle out and it was really uncrowded, there were no jet skis. It’s pretty crazy looking back now. We weren’t totally aware of how dangerous it was.” A friendly rivalry between Mel and Virostko drove the two surfers to push the boundaries, always seeking a bigger wave, a more critical ride, a more perfect day. “As kids, we would surf up the coast,” Barron remembered. “Peter Mel was a couple of years older and already this established big wave surfer, and Flea was just always battling him, trying to get a gnarlier wave.” The surf careers of Virostko and his friends, including Barron, Jason “Ratboy” Collins, Ken “Skindog” Collins and Mel, were created by a perfect storm in the surf world. Sponsorship money was pouring into action sports and big wave surfing was in the spotlight. During the peak of his career, Virostko was earning $12,000 a month from sponsorships. Heaped on top of that were contest earnings, including $45,000 he collected from the first two years of the Mavericks event.

It was enough for a down payment on a Westside home just blocks from the waves he grew up surfing. At Mavericks, Virostko was king. His reputation for kamikaze surfing in the heaviest waves earned him the respect of big wave surfers around the world. “When I surf big waves like Maverick’s, I can’t hold back,” Virostko admitted. “My whole mindset is that I have to sit on the bowl. Sometimes I’m getting pitched and I just think, What am I doing?'” Wipeout In 2005, methamphetamine accounted for half of all drug-related arrests made by the sheriff’s office in Santa Cruz County. It was a growing problem in California, where counties reported a 100 percent increase in methamphetamine-related arrests. In Santa Cruz, the drug was an underwater time bomb, detonating among the surf scene and clearing out the waters. After suffering a knee injury at the 2004 Eddie Aikau, Virostko said his substance abuse began to escalate. He was out of the water for two months and was drydocked during the Maverick’s surf contest that winter.

Instead of defending his title, he watched as fellow Westsider Anthony Tashnick took the win. By 2006, the party lifestyle was taking its toll. Virostko began to fade from the Santa Cruz surf scene, appearing occasionally for standout sessions at Maverick’s. “It got crazy,” said Virostko. “I wish I would have put a filter on it and thought about my longevity, but you can’t change the past.” By 2007, Virostko was a casualty — addicted to the high of meth, which lasts up to 12 hours and creates intense feelings of euphoria, increased endurance and a sense of invincibility. The high wasn’t so different from the dopamine-saturated rush that comes from riding a huge wave at Mavericks — but he didn’t have to wait for the buoys to light up and surf conditions to be perfect to score it. “I thought I would never get addicted to meth, but I needed it every day by 2007,” Virostko said, adding that he was also drinking a half gallon of vodka each day. “I wasn’t thinking about my truck payment or my house payment. It turns you into something that you’re not.

I was lying to my sponsors and telling them, I got this, I’m surfing every day!’ I was living a lie.” His surf career was on the rocks. When his contracts came up at the beginning of the year, he lost most of his major financial sponsors. After a lackluster performance at the 2007 Mavericks event, it was clear that Virostko was in the grip of monster. Virostko’s family and friends held an intervention at Santa Cruz High later that year. His childhood mentors, Schmidt and Joey Thomas, his family and girlfriend all gathered together to confront his substance abuse. Driven by the knowledge that those who mattered most wanted him to get clean, Virostko fueled his body one last time with vodka and meth and drove himself to Beacon House, a rehab facility in Monterey. When he checked in, his BAC level was .28, just .02 below what doctors say can be deadly. “I’m a pretty strong-willed person,” Virostko said of the decision to get sober. “If I want to do something, I’ll do it.” One month later, Virostko checked out with a new outlook on life. And, he couldn’t wait to go surfing.

Surfacing Virostko today is a changed man. The fire has consumed itself, leaving him with a passion for advancing the sport of big wave surfing and a desire to help others conquer their addictions. The wave has been ridden, the wipeout survived, and Darryl Virostko is surfacing again. “I’m going in a different direction,” Virostko said of his decision to retire. “I had that thirst for Mavericks for 20 years and it’s just not there anymore. I don’t want to go out there and do something crazy. I want to see my baby grow up, I want to give other people a chance, especially younger guys that haven’t had that opportunity in life.” The decision to retire took root during the opening ceremony of the 2009-10 Eddie Aikau surf contest. Virostko had traveled to Hawaii for the prestigious event and felt pressured to compete. “At the opening ceremony, Clyde Aikau, Eddie’s brother, said, If you’re not 100 percent into this contest in your heart, then give somebody else a chance,'” Virostko recalled.

Virostko went on to compete in the event, but Aikau’s words resonated with him. This year, Virostko will take a different place in the lineup at the Mavericks contest. He will still be in the water, but this time he’ll be offering an expert’s take on the contest for the event’s webcast. After successfully completing rehab, Virostko founded Fleahab, a program for recovering addicts that incorporates surfing, skateboarding and outdoor activities. With the help of his family and the board of directors, the program continues to grow. The Fleahab First Annual Golf Tournament, a recent benefit for the program, featured a who’s-who lineup of professional big wave surfers and their friends and family. “Flea basically has the biggest heart of any of my friends,” said Mel. “He’s always had it, although I don’t think he was in touch with it. When his sobriety came around, it allowed him to take that shield down and be who he truly is, which is a really giving, big-hearted friend.” Today, Virostko spends his time building the Fleahab rehab program and working construction to support his family, which includes 4-month-old daughter Lily Joan.

At a recent session out at Mitchell’s Cove, he was spotted flying high above the lip on an electric green board. “I love the sport of big wave surfing,” said Virostko. “You have to be in peak physical shape, surfing every day, training. But I don’t get paid to surf anymore, so I can’t surf every day, all day.” Virostko is squaring up with his past and giving reality the same steely-eyed, unflinching stare he used when facing down big waves. Surfing big waves may never be something Virostko quits entirely, but he’s no longer chasing the biggest, deepest or gnarliest ride. He’s leaving the extremes behind and focusing on what matters today. “I’m on three and a half years,” Virostko said, proudly, referencing his sobriety.

“I have a beautiful baby and a girlfriend.” He paused, “Things are really good.” To make a donation or learn more, visit or Mavericks Invitational Invitees Chris Bertish [ZAF] 2010 contest winner Shane Desmond [Santa Cruz] Anthony Tashnick (Santa Cruz 2005 winner) Ken Collins [Santa Cruz] Titans of Mavericks › Darryl "Flea" Virostko fleahab Winner in 1999, 2000, and 2004 gives Darryl “Flea” Virostko the only reigning 3 time champion title. Flea was one of the most influential competitors in Mavericks history. His fearless commitment and unmatched skill set lifts him above the rest to make him one of the all time Titans. Now retired from big wave surfing, Flea's continued contribution to Mavericks is being one the new active Committee 5 members, as well as running his rehab facility (fleahab) in Santa Cruz, CA. © Titans of Mavericks. All rights reserved. Mavericks Legend - Darryl Flea Virostko - YouTube Mavericks Legend - Darryl Flea Virostko Want to watch this again later?

Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 29, 2012 A native of Santa Cruz, California, Darryl "Flea" Virostko has earned a reputation as one of the most fearless surfers in the world — winning the Mavericks competition, the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing, three consecutive times. With a flourishing career in big-wave surf competitions and corporate sponsorships, Darryl has appeared in the surfing films Riding Giants, Step Into Liquid, Billabong Odysseys and most recently The Westsiders, the award winning documentary that follows the rise and fall of the Santa Cruz surf tribe. Darryl was at the top of his profession when the celebrity lifestyle that accompanied his surfing success brought with it alcohol and methamphetamine addiction. A near fatal fall from a cliff almost killed him -- that was when he decided to get help. Now Darryl is giving back with an exercise-based approach to rehabilitation for addicts, FleaHab Inc.

In a survey of 500 counties across the Santa Cruz County completed in 2005, 87 percent reported increases in methamphetamine-related arrests in the previous three years. California counties reported a 100 percent increase. A not-for-profit organization, the mission of FleaHab is to provide a sober living environment in Santa Cruz focused on physical activity, in effect replacing the high of drugs with the endorphins of exercise. Combined with a nutritional menu and access to sports, yoga and other holistic support systems, FleaHab offers a new approach to sober living -- and new hope for those afflicted by drugs and alcohol. FleaHab teaches recovering addicts how to surf and be active while learning a new way of life, without the ups and downs caused by addiction. Find out more and get involved at FleaHab.com Filmed by Rocky Romano Produced by The Go Big Project Category Surfing as Rehab for Those Fighting Addiction - The New York Times The New York Times U.S.

|Surfing as Rehab for Those Fighting Addiction Search Surfing as Rehab for Those Fighting Addiction By MALIA WOLLAN Continue reading the main story Photo Darryl Virostko has been sober for a year and is teaching other recovering addicts how to surf. Credit Thor Swift for The New York Times SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The first time Darryl Virostko surfed waves as tall as three-story buildings at Mavericks, the legendary surf spot some 50 miles north of here, he was high on acid. It was not the only drug Mr. Virostko, 37, would take during his surfing career. Even as he was earning a reputation as one of the most fearless surfers in the world — wining the Mavericks competition , the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing, three consecutive times — he was also becoming an alcoholic and methamphetamine addict, dependencies that propelled him to success at surfing but eventually crushed him. “With meth, you’re moving a million miles a minute,” said Mr. Virostko, whose nickname is Flea.

“You’re psyched to catch any wave you can.” By 2005, during a peak in methamphetamine use in Santa Cruz County, more than half of the drug-related arrests by the sheriff’s office involved methamphetamines . In a survey of 500 counties across the country completed in 2005, 87 percent reported increases in methamphetamine-related arrests in the previous three years. California counties reported a 100 percent increase. “Meth was gigantic,” said Josh Pomer, 36, a surf filmmaker from Santa Cruz who has known Mr. Virostko since elementary school. “Everybody had sores all over their faces.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Virostko has been sober for a year, and this month he started a program called FleaHab in collaboration with a local drug rehabilitation center. He will teach surfing and other sports to patients undergoing supervised alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Mr. Virostko hopes that FleaHab will be his anchor in the dry terrain of sobriety. Addicts in the program will replace the high of drugs with the endorphin rush of strenuous physical activity, he says.

He recently took a group surfing to try his hand at teaching. “It’s like I’m learning to surf again,” he said. “Seeing them so excited reminds me of when I first started.” Mr. Virostko checked into a drug rehabilitation center in August 2008 after an intervention. Months before, in an inebriated state, he fell 60 feet down a cliff. “Once you start using meth it’s not something you can stop doing overnight,” he said. After getting clean, Mr. Virostko gained 30 pounds that he is now working feverishly to lose before facing those mountains of saltwater this winter. “Life sober is hard,” he said. He said that he is nearly broke and that he fills in on construction jobs “just to be able to eat.” Still, a cobbled-together life sober is better than the fate that befell some of his fellow surfers. When methamphetamines hit this beachside college town 70 miles south of San Francisco, Mr. Pomer said, many local surfers disappeared from the water at famous surf breaks like Steamer’s Lane. “It was a zombie land,” Mr.

Pomer said, describing the hollow-eyed, pockmarked surfers. “By 2005 the place was practically deserted. Everyone was inside their houses doing meth.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy The drug played a role in disaster on some occasions. In late 2007 a big-wave surfer, Peter Davi, 45, drowned in 30-foot plus waves in Monterey County. Methamphetamine was found in his body, according to a toxicology report. Though Mr. Virostko broke free, for years he was near the epicenter of this town’s drug-addled surf culture. His house on the city’s Westside was a “meth den,” covered in spray paint and enveloped in the smell of methamphetamine — an odor “like burnt carburetor,” said Mr. Pomer, who is making a documentary about “the Westsiders,” a group of surfers here known for their surfing prowess and for viciously defending surf breaks they considered their territory. After winning the Mavericks “Men Who Ride Mountains” contest in 1999, Mr.

Virostko said he rented a suite of rooms at a Santa Cruz hotel and held a multiday blowout featuring booze, scantily clad girls and a rainbow of pills, powders, acid, marijuana and mushrooms. In an intoxicated frenzy, he and his friends threw the suite’s furniture out a window and down to the beach below. “I spent money left and right,” said Mr. Virostko, who earned more than $12,000 a month in sponsorships from surfboard and apparel companies. Advertisement Continue reading the main story He said his heaviest drug use followed a 2004 injury from falling down the face of a 40-foot wave at Waimea Bay in Hawaii. After that, he said, he took hard to methamphetamine and was drinking up to a half-gallon of vodka a day. This winter, when North Pacific storms send swells crashing as monstrous waves against the craggy rock bed at Pillar Point, Mr. Virostko will be one of 24 big-wave surfers summoned to compete in the Mavericks competition. In an El Niño year like this one, the waves are predicted to be unusually large.

The winner will take home $150,000. This will be the first time Mr. Virostko competes as a sober man. And while many recovering addicts required by 12-step programs to choose a higher power opt for God, Mr. Virostko says he chose the ocean. “Every time I’ve surfed Mavericks, I’ve gone under a wave and I’ve said, ‘Please just let me come up,’ ” Mr. Virostko said. “I’ve been talking to the ocean my whole life. It’s bigger and way more powerful than me.” A version of this article appears in print on September 27, 2009, on Page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Now Clean, Wave Rider Hopes Surfing Can Smooth a Path to Sobriety for Others.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Three time Maverick's champion Darryl 'Flea' Virostko announces retirement Three time Maverick's champion Darryl 'Flea' Virostko announces retirement By GRETCHEN WEGRICH # Comments SANTA CRUZ -- Darryl Virostko knows the perfect thrill of air dropping down the face of a 30-foot wave from deep in the bowl at Maverick's. He also knows the feeling of being held down, trapped under the weight of the ocean, a drug called meth, and the expectations of the big wave surfing world. Over his 20-year professional surf career, the legendary Santa Cruz surfer has chased glory and tamed liquid mountains while doing battle with an under-the-surface monster called "addiction." This year, in conjunction with the Mavericks Invitational Opening Ceremony held Friday, Virostko announced his retirement from professional big wave surfing. It's been a wild ride. Virostko's surf career is studded with glory moments.

He is a three-time Maverick's contest champion, claiming the title in back to back years in 1999 and 2000 and "Flea-peating" again in 2004. Looking back, Virostko, 40, has much to be proud of. "I made it doing something I loved," he said. "My life was all about surfing and doing crazy stuff, getting crazy waves. To win Mav's once was like a dream come true, let alone three times." During the inaugural 1999 Quiksilver Men Who Ride Mountains surf contest at Maverick's, the 5-foot, 9-inch, 150-pound surfer sported a leopard-pelt hairdo -- a tribute to a friend who had cancer. In 2000, he beat current 11-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater in all three heats of the Quiksilver Men Who Ride Mountains event at Maverick's, including the final. "There's no one in the surfing world that has done what he's done," said friend and fellow big wave surfer Peter Mel, a Santa Cruz native. "Three in a row is a feat that will never be matched.

It's amazing what he's accomplished." Because the Maverick's contest was not run between Virostko's 2000 and 2004 victories, he stands as a back to back to back champion. "[Flea] sets himself apart. In his heyday, he was the man to beat and I think he still would be today if he didn't retire," said Maverick's pioneer Jeff Clark. Clark added that when Virostko started surfing Maverick's, "He learned early on to surf Maverick's well, and so when the first contest came around, he was ready." Besides dominating at Maverick's, Virostko was a four-time competitor and 12-time invitee to the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. Virostko's epic wipeout at the 2004 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational was featured on the cover of Surfing magazine in March 2005. The death-defying tumble from the 50-foot close-out earned Virostko Surfer magazine's "Wipeout of the Decade" award.

Virostko was nominated for the Billabong XXL award for biggest wave of 2006. "There's an inner being with Flea, and sometimes it just clicks at the most extreme places," said fellow big wave surfer Shawn "Barney" Barron, also of Santa Cruz. "It's kind of scary because you could play it safe and be on the shoulder, but Flea's kind of the opposite. He's always loved the thrill of getting a large wave." Life at the top was about as precarious as one of Virostko's wild rides at Maverick's. Eventually, the wave he was riding would give him the pounding of his life. Takeoff Virostko was born Dec. 25, 1971. He survived a troubled childhood by channelling his aggression into surfing on Santa Cruz's Westside. The breaks along the Westside were a dangerous territory ruled by Vince Collier, a "Godfather"-like figure who enforced the heavy localism that kept the choice Santa Cruz breaks free of "valleys," "trannies" and other unwanted interlopers.

Virostko earned his nickname, "Flea," when Collier spotted the teenage surfer charging down the face of a Middle Peak set wave at Steamer Lane. Collier thought Virostko -- who was barely above four feet tall at the time -- looked like a flea clinging to the back of a big dog. "Steamer Lane is kind of a big wave in its own right," said Mel, who credits the wave with honing Virostko's early big wave skills. "Santa Cruz is such a unique place. The level of the surfers and of our mentors, Richard Schmidt and Vince Collier, we each took a little piece of what they did. Having mentors that were as good as those guys were on a global level, and also the crew we grew up with, gave us an advantage." Virostko graduated from Santa Cruz High in 1991, already having graduated from Middle Peak bombs to Maverick's more dangerous waters the previous winter. The experienced lit a fire that would take 20 years to burn itself out. "I loved big waves," said Virostko. "Every time Mav's broke, I wanted to be up there.

We would paddle out and it was really uncrowded, there were no jet skis. It's pretty crazy looking back now. We weren't totally aware of how dangerous it was." A friendly rivalry between Mel and Virostko drove the two surfers to push the boundaries, always seeking a bigger wave, a more critical ride, a more perfect day. "As kids, we would surf up the coast," Barron remembered. "Peter Mel was a couple of years older and already this established big wave surfer, and Flea was just always battling him, trying to get a gnarlier wave." The surf careers of Virostko and his friends, including Barron, Jason "Ratboy" Collins, Ken "Skindog" Collins and Mel, were created by a perfect storm in the surf world. Sponsorship money was pouring into action sports and big wave surfing was in the spotlight. During the peak of his career, Virostko was earning $12,000 a month from sponsorships. Heaped on top of that were contest earnings, including $45,000 he collected from the first two years of the Maverick's event.

It was enough for a down payment on a Westside home just blocks from the waves he grew up surfing. At Maverick's, Virostko was king. His reputation for kamikaze surfing in the heaviest waves earned him the respect of big wave surfers around the world. "When I surf big waves like Maverick's, I can't hold back," Virostko admitted. "My whole mindset is that I have to sit on the bowl. Sometimes I'm getting pitched and I just think, What am I doing?'" Wipeout In 2005, methamphetamine accounted for half of all drug-related arrests made by the sheriff's office in Santa Cruz County. It was a growing problem in California, where counties reported a 100 percent increase in methamphetamine-related arrests. In Santa Cruz, the drug was an underwater time bomb, detonating among the surf scene and clearing out the waters. After suffering a knee injury at the 2004 Eddie Aikau, Virostko said his substance abuse began to escalate. He was out of the water for two months and was drydocked during the Maverick's surf contest that winter.

Instead of defending his title, he watched as fellow Westsider Anthony Tashnick took the win. By 2006, the party lifestyle was taking its toll. Virostko began to fade from the Santa Cruz surf scene, appearing occasionally for standout sessions at Maverick's. "It got crazy," said Virostko. "I wish I would have put a filter on it and thought about my longevity, but you can't change the past." By 2007, Virostko was a casualty -- addicted to the high of meth, which lasts up to 12 hours and creates intense feelings of euphoria, increased endurance and a sense of invincibility. The high wasn't so different from the dopamine-saturated rush that comes from riding a huge wave at Maverick's -- but he didn't have to wait for the buoys to light up and surf conditions to be perfect to score it. "I thought I would never get addicted to meth, but I needed it every day by 2007," Virostko said, adding that he was also drinking a half gallon of vodka each day. "I wasn't thinking about my truck payment or my house payment.

It turns you into something that you're not. I was lying to my sponsors and telling them, I got this, I'm surfing every day!' I was living a lie." His surf career was on the rocks. When his contracts came up at the beginning of the year, he lost most of his major financial sponsors. After a lackluster performance at the 2007 Maverick's event, it was clear that Virostko was in the grip of monster. Virostko's family and friends held an intervention at Santa Cruz High later that year. His childhood mentors, Schmidt and Joey Thomas, his family and girlfriend all gathered together to confront his substance abuse. Driven by the knowledge that those who mattered most wanted him to get clean, Virostko fueled his body one last time with vodka and meth and drove himself to Beacon House, a rehab facility in Monterey. When he checked in, his BAC level was .28, just .02 below what doctors say can be deadly. "I'm a pretty strong-willed person," Virostko said of the decision to get sober.

"If I want to do something, I'll do it." One month later, Virostko checked out with a new outlook on life. And, he couldn't wait to go surfing. Surfacing Virostko today is a changed man. The fire has consumed itself, leaving him with a passion for advancing the sport of big wave surfing and a desire to help others conquer their addictions. The wave has been ridden, the wipeout survived, and Darryl Virostko is surfacing again. "I'm going in a different direction," Virostko said of his decision to retire. "I had that thirst for Maverick's for 20 years and it's just not there anymore. I don't want to go out there and do something crazy. I want to see my baby grow up, I want to give other people a chance, especially younger guys that haven't had that opportunity in life." The decision to retire took root during the opening ceremony of the 2009-10 Eddie Aikau surf contest. Virostko had traveled to Hawaii for the prestigious event and felt pressured to compete.

"At the opening ceremony, Clyde Aikau, Eddie's brother, said, If you're not 100 percent into this contest in your heart, then give somebody else a chance,'" Virostko recalled. Virostko went on to compete in the event, but Aikau's words resonated with him. This year, Virostko will take a different place in the lineup at the Maverick's contest. He will still be in the water, but this time he'll be offering an expert's take on the contest for the event's webcast. After successfully completing rehab, Virostko founded Fleahab, a program for recovering addicts that incorporates surfing, skateboarding and outdoor activities. With the help of his family and the board of directors, the program continues to grow. The Fleahab First Annual Golf Tournament, a recent benefit for the program, featured a who's-who lineup of professional big wave surfers and their friends and family. "Flea basically has the biggest heart of any of my friends," said Mel. "He's always had it, although I don't think he was in touch with it.

When his sobriety came around, it allowed him to take that shield down and be who he truly is, which is a really giving, big-hearted friend." Today, Virostko spends his time building the Fleahab rehab program and working construction to support his family, which includes 4-month-old daughter Lily Joan. At a recent session out at Mitchell's Cove, he was spotted flying high above the lip on an electric green board. "I love the sport of big wave surfing," said Virostko. "You have to be in peak physical shape, surfing every day, training. But I don't get paid to surf anymore, so I can't surf every day, all day." Virostko is squaring up with his past and giving reality the same steely-eyed, unflinching stare he used when facing down big waves. Surfing big waves may never be something Virostko quits entirely, but he's no longer chasing the biggest, deepest or gnarliest ride. He's leaving the extremes behind and focusing on what matters today. "I'm on three and a half years," Virostko said, proudly, referencing his sobriety.

"I have a beautiful baby and a girlfriend." He paused, "Things are really good." To make a donation or learn more, visit or Mavericks Invitational Invitees

Question: Darryl Virostko is a ‘Maverick’s Champion’ in which sport?
Answer: Surfing